Thomas Harley ended Friday night in the middle of a scrum, and the Dallas Stars left Minnesota with another win over the Wild.
Dallas won 2-1, but the final horn didn't cool anybody off. Tempers boiled over, with the Stars defenseman and Minnesota's Boldy at the center of it.
Plenty of others joined in, but those two were the main event.
Why so heated in a preseason game? This was the second time in three days Dallas beat Minnesota, following a 2-0 win on Wednesday.
Glen Gulutzan's Stars finished the preseason a perfect 4-0. John Hynes' Wild dropped both meetings this week.
Then came the moment the TNT cameras caught: a fan in a Boldy USA jersey flipping off Harley right after the salute.
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A fan in a Boldy USA jersey had the last word on Harley
Mike Bartner called it "cinema" and credited the NHL on TNT crew for the shot.
Harley isn't some fringe camp body, either. He carries a $10,587,500 cap hit, and he scored against St. Louis on Monday.
Good. Rivalries don't take September off, and the league should be thrilled these two teams clearly can't stand each other.
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It's two neighbors feuding over a fence line. Nobody's moving, so the arguing never really stops.
The regular season will test it four times. The first meeting comes January 30 in Minnesota.
That's a long wait for a grudge. Four months is plenty of time for this one to simmer.
Before then, Dallas opens October 2 at home against St. Louis. The Wild start a night earlier in Nashville.
There's one more thing hanging over Dallas. Jake Oettinger was held out Wednesday with lower-body tightness, and Gulutzan planned to have him checked again Thursday.
Minnesota has bigger questions than a scrum, too. Bill Guerin is still waiting on Quinn Hughes to decide on his future.
The Wild get four regular-season chances to answer. After Friday, nobody in Minnesota will need a reminder of who Harley is.
Did Thomas Harley get what he deserved from that fan in Minnesota?
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